It’s Graduation Time in Bihar, India!

On Thursday, October 18, we celebrated the successful graduation of the 21 women in our Train the Trainer program in India! We will train a total of 120 women in India during our two year project. The following is a congratulatory note from lead trainer and Nomi Co-Founder, Supei Liu:It is hard to believe that the first phase of Nomi's Train of Trainer program is coming to an end this Thursday, October 18th. Our trainees have come so far. In the past couple months, they learned how to hand stitch, measure, create patterns, make bags, pass my quality control (which is no easy task!), train other women and write their names in both Hindi and English. On top of that, many of them opened saving accounts and received income for the first time last week. It was truly a memorable moment for all of us. When they received their stipend from making the bags, all of the women signed in English.

Even after the first round of training and completing class exercises, many of the women have grown in entrepreneurship. Lastly, our attendance rate in September was 90%. 36% of women have had perfect attendance since July which was monsoon season in India. WOW - what an amazing number! I look forward to starting our next phase of training and continuing to produce quality products with the women in Kolkata. It is such an honor being part of the growth and success of these amazing and talented women!

A big thanks to the Bihar team and Apne Aap, we appreciate your support and commitment to these women!